Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, metabolic syndrome and hepatocellular carcinoma—a composite scenario

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Solid data suggest that the epidemiology of HCC is changing; while the frequencies of hepatitis B virus (HBV)- and hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related HCC are progressively decreasing owing to the development of nucleo(t)side-based therapies and directly acting antiviral agents, respectively, the frequency of cryptogenic HCC continues to increase (15–30% of cases) (1).